A new Congress, a new administration, and a new city

As preparations are made for the start of the 111th Congress, and the upcoming Presidential Inauguration, it’s hard to pay attention to (or even notice) the other significant changes that are happening around the city.

One major change that will definitely be noticed shortly after President Obama takes his seat as the leader of the free world is the major ideological shift that Washington, D.C. will undergo.

For the last eight years, while the city politics of Washington have been consistently liberal, the demographic that works in Washington and makes up the surrounding metro areas has maintained a fairly moderate lean.

With that being said, it’s important to note that this lean that I’m speaking of has primarily been kept in check by conservative Hill staffers and political appointees. As for the liberals in the DC metro area, many are non-political (job security) bureaucrats, and/or think-tank employees.

However, with a new liberal Congress and President, Washington D.C. is going to see a flood of new people coming into the city to fill these various appointments and Hill positions.

This means that at least for the next four years, the DC metro area can expect to see a dramatic shift even further to the left, and this could be seen in some key elections in 2010, particularly the Virginia Governors race (which I plan on covering more), and some Congressional seats outside of the traditional NOVA (Northern Virginia).

I’m sure for many conservatives living in Washington, this is a scary prospect that some might want to ignore. However in my opinion, I think it’s going to be exciting to see this shift happen.

While the unfortunate reality is that D.C. is always going to be run by political and economic elites from both sides of the aisle, I truly believe that for every pair of Vineyard Vines club shorts that we can get out of Washington, the better America will be.